I agree with those who are attributing the difference between 'Sally is 
my friend' and 'My friend is Sally' as being a matter of focus and 
information structure. I'm sure that studying the contexts in which each 
type appears would confirm this.

I dislike bringing terms like active and passive into the discussion of 
linking verbs. Introducing new terms is burdensome, but using familiar 
ones in ways few others use them muddies the waters. Assigning something 
to a category is what the speaker is doing, not what the subject of the 
sentence is doing. The theater analogy of playing a role takes it too 
far, I believe; it implies an element of agency in the subject that is 
not part of the meaning of a linking verb. It's certainly true that 
people might deserve a certain category label because they do stuff that 
is criterial for that category, but that is backgrounded in linking verb 
expressions in most cases, and, of course, in many cases the subject is 
in the category involuntarily (e.g., "She's a very sick kid"), or no 
action at all is involved ('Sally is a human being.')


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page: 
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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